Rooster Herding

I think that for the next Olympics they should have Rooster herding, which will defiantly determine who is fit, and who is not! I fall into the later category  and openly admit that chasing roosters around the orchard nearly killed me. Roosters are far smarter than chickens, maybe it is because they have nothing to do all day but eat, molest chickens and eat.

I was asked to donate a rooster to a lady in the food project, and I was happy to help as I have been searching for somewhere to deposit the mass amount of surplus roosters I have. The lady came and collected the rooster that we had managed to catch, and I asked if she would like any more. She said that she would happily take as many as we could spare, to either eat or sell.

I knew catching the roosters was out of the question as they are fast, but I thought we could herd them into an empty pen. So, that is what we did by letting everything out of the orchard the roosters followed, and it was only a question of herding the roosters to where I wanted them. This worked for the first few, then the others got wise to this plan.

Plan B, we had to put everything back and try to chase the roosters out of the orchard, this took far more effort, including me, two children a rake and two brooms. Do not criticise the expert rooster chasing equipment as it works perfectly. After much swearing, chasing, throwing of brooms, we had roosters in the pen. This felt good, as they had been a headache for so long, and we needed them gone, as I was feeding them for nothing.

We gave away 6 roosters which sounds a lot, unfortunately  we still have far too many, and operation rooster will need to commence again soon. I want to get the roosters down to a manageable amount, and we seem to always have more roosters than hens in every batch of chicks.

The hatching has begun

Lucy has caused great stress over the last few weeks, as she has been a very nervous expectant Mum, which has in turn made us nervous. There have been problems with the other ducks, the dogs, people, and generally everything causing Lucy to leave her eggs and have to be encouraged to get back on them. We discovered that our predicted dates were wrong, and that she was going to be sat for far longer than expected.

As with everything here in casa chaos it is a steep learning curve, and we seem to be getting this one so wrong. I am a great believer in nature doing what nature does best, however, I can be so cruel sometimes. Lucy managed to hatch one duckling this morning, but it died, and in typical animal fashion, she simply discarded it and carried on with what she was doing.

I have Googled and apparently the others should begin to hatch any day soon, which I am no longer excited about, more anxious, pacing up and down and worrying. I suppose it is more obvious because she is in front of us, and we can see it all happening. Often the chickens will go off and return with chicks, therefore, removing the element of worry, what you don't know you don't worry about!

On the note of chicks, Omelette, returned yesterday...eleven chicks following behind up the drive, and hopped into the box and was escorted to the maternity wing. This then encouraged the feral chicken to want to return to the luxury and peace of the  maternity wing, so we now have the sounds of chirping once again.

Lets hope Lucy can successfully hatch the remaining ducklings, and I can move on to worrying about something else!

Escapee's

I am getting to the point now where if nothing wants to stay put then I refuse to spend half my day running around after it. Jack and Jill pushed me over the edge yesterday as they escaped again, went straight up the 200ft mountain and refused to come back down. I know that goats are very homely creatures and typically will return, but there is always that doubt that they might not.

So, we stood at the bottom of the mountain calling, shaking a bucket and generally looking idiots, the goats were no where to be seen, and I was becoming more pissed off as I had better things to do than stand waiting for a goat. I gave up, and stomped off, an hour later Jack appeared on my terrace looking for corn, and wanting to get let back into the orchard.

It was just one of those days, as the feral chicken and her five chicks, yes the others died, decided that she didn't want to be in the maternity wing, and some how got out! OK, this chicken really was an escape artist, as she gets through fences. We have no idea how, but she was there wandering around the orchard, ignoring us and eating food.

I know my fence building skills are frankly crap, but these animals have everything they need inside, so why do they persist in escaping! Lets hope today everything remains where it should be, and we have a day where I am not chasing animals!

Something so simple

Why does everything in life have to be a battle, including getting something so simple as wormer's for the chickens. Im no expect but I suspect that the chickens have worms, and I know many other chicken keepers that worm their chickens. Therefore, I thought I would be responsible and do the same, healthy happy chickens happy eggs!

So, I considered where to get the wormer's from and thought that the logical place would be the vet, however, there is nothing logical about our vet. Our vet is lovely, but lacking in any knowledge for any animal larger than a dog. Therefore, when he sees me approaching his heart sinks, as he has no idea what I am going to ask for next.

Apparently they do not have chicken wormer's, but could order me some, there you go problem solved....wait never that simple. I could have paste, or tablet form. I expressed to the vet, did he not know how many chickens I had, and how long worming 60+ chickens would take!! I asked if he had the wormer's that go into water or feed, but no, why would they this is Spain of course.

There was then a long debate on the worms, how long were they, had I actually seen them, and why was I bothering to worm the chickens. What type of chickens they were, errr feathered laying egg variety! and how old. At this point I was bored, but then he said he had found something... wormer's for cows! I pointed out I don't have cows, I have chickens, slightly different farm animal!

After a very long conversation, and no success I felt disheartened as I could not believe that no one in Spain wormed their chickens. So, I thought I would call the feed store lady, she is sooo wise! and bingo, she said you simply pop along to the farmacia, and ask for the worming solution..why didn't I just ring her in the first place.

Just another day in chaos

I had high hopes for yesterday, but alas they were soon gone as I realised that it was just another day in chaos. I do wonder why my animals are weird, and cannot do anything they should. As I went down to "quickly" feed everything and do water duties, I realised that it may have been Christmas day, but it was far from normal.

The chick that had been rescued had died, there was a dead chicken in the orchard and Jack and Jill were half way to the next village. At this point my heart sank, and I knew my quick visit was going to be longer than expected. After tracking down the goats and returning them to their pen, I realised that AL needed to be returned to the feed shed, as chickens and bathrooms do not mix.

I have no idea how people can keep chickens/roosters in their houses as they stink, sorry if I offend anyone, but all animals should be in the appropriate housing facility, and my daughters bathroom was not it at all.

Therefore, today's project is to build a hospital wing, next to the maternity wing! Grand ideas in my head, however, in reality  it is very likely to be some pallets thrown together with a chicken wire roof, voile a hospital wing! No I have not lost the plot, but we often get sick chickens, which end up in bathrooms, which is not good, so why not build my own sick bay, I wont say it will help me save any of the ill chickens, but it will remove them from my house.

They don't care its Christmas!

When you have animals they don't care what day or date it is, that everyone around the world is enjoying time sat indoors, eating, drinking and having fun! It may be Christmas Day, however, everything still needs feeding, cleaning, watering, and generally taking care of. I'm just hoping that for one day everything can behave and stay where it is supposed to be.

My daughters flat has turned into a medical station, as AL our big cock has hurt his foot, so he has had to be removed, and we have no where to put him as Jessica has to be locked in the feed room, a she/he is smashing Lucys eggs. On top of the AL problem, she also has a chick, which needed to be removed, so that is also upstairs. Just another day in Casa Chaos...but would we have it any other way, god YES!

I do wonder if everyone with animals have the same dramas and issues as us, or whether all problems head straight for casa chaos with glee. So, I am off to check everything has food, is where it is supposed to be, and then maybe we can have a semi normal day. A normal day would be too much to ask for, but a semi normal one may just be possible!

Have a great Christmas guys and see you manana, after the presents, eating, drinking, and attempting to be a normal family for the day :)

She has invited the family

Remember the chicken from next door who turned up with her two chicks, well we had let them roam loose in the orchard, as she was a very protective mum. I was ok, with this and she seemed capable of keeping an eye on her offspring, maybe next door breeds far more intelligent chickens than me! hmmmm anyway, she had two chicks, which is a small number but I thought no more of it until yesterday.

Our new addition suddenly appeared with six more chicks! they are smaller than her first two, so she either phoned a friend and told them to throw their chicks over the fence as there was free food and loggings here, or she hatched the rest of her brood. Either way two became eight, and now her family seems to be expanding.

I am a little concerned that if she continues, by the end of next week she would have moved the whole orchard into ours! oh well lets hope she stays and that she doesn't fly back once they are all grown. On a bonus we did manage to get her and her ever expanding family into the maternity wing, which she doesn't appear to like, but it allows us to keep an eye on them all easily.

"P" Day has arrived

Well the day had come, and there was much anticipation around Casa Chaos, actually that is not strictly true, I was excited, no one else really cared! It was parsnip harvesting day, where I would be rewarded with fresh, tasty parsnips, ready to eat and sell. I had fraggles asking for them, which is good, however,  I had made a point of saying I might not be able to supply, as I had no idea what they would turn out like, and thank god I had been prepared.

I am no gardener, and over the years have managed to kill more plants, and trees than any other human being. So, I was nervous about the parsnip growing, however, the Spanish vegetable god that I know had assured me that you just throw the seeds in the ground, water, and leave alone. I presumed that a few months later voile, I would have parsnips.

So, off I skipped to the parsnip patch where there was a full patch of greens, this was a good sign, it meant that something was under the ground. I gently begun to pull at the greens, and was surprised how easily they cam out of the ground. The first few were really small, in fact tiny and didn't really look like the plump, juicy parsnips that I had imagined.

I considered that it may be because I had selected from the edge, I have no idea why that would make a difference, but it seemed logical to me. So, I delved into the middle, and pulled, but another very tiny parsnip appeared, and this one looked like those alien fruits and veg, which you see on worlds weirdest items.

I appear to have the smallest crop of parsnips known to man, and was frantically wondering if every single one was the same. Now I knew that I couldn't pop them back in the ground, and pray they would get bigger, So, I called the Spanish veg god. He came round to examine my inferior crop, and knew exactly what was wrong...they needed longer! In typical Spanish tradition...manana...manana...manana.

He said that they had not grown enough, and I had to wait! Did he not understand that it was Christmas Day on Tuesday  there was no waiting time! People were depending on my growing abilities to serve their fresh parsnips on Tuesday.

There is no miracle, no quick fix and no way that I am serving parsnips on Tuesday  I feel that my whole Christmas has been destroyed by one slow growing root vegetable. Maybe they will be ready for Kings on the 6th January, or maybe even Easter, who knows! I have to simply wait!

I have been shopping

I have never enjoyed shopping and hate queues of any sort, therefore, I tend to know what I want, buy it and pray that it is the right one. At one time my shopping experiences would involve shoes, clothes and sparkly jewellery, but now I find myself in the feed store gazing at feed bins and buckets. Money is tight here in Casa Chaos, therefore, we have to make do with what we have, which can be hard when everything keeps breaking.

However, I spotted something a few weeks ago, I knew I had to have it, and even did the pouty lip to hubby, and pleaded to have it, but alas there was simply not enough left in the pot for treats. So I put this shiny item to the back of my mind, and dreamed of the day when I would be able to afford one. You may all be wondering what extravagant item I am talking about, and it is of course a new wheelbarrow!

Now to many of you this may not seem like a big deal, however, here a wheelbarrow would be a luxury, which would make our lives easier. Something so simple, yet so far out of my grasp, but I didn't give up, like a child collecting their pennies for the sweet shop, I saved and saved. Finally I had enough, and with anticipation and excitement I went to the feed store, and purchased my very own yellow wheelbarrow.

It was one of those moments when you had to be there to appreciate the excitement, thankfully my son shared my excitement as he proudly stared at the new item in the drive. Unfortunately  he now wants to use the wheelbarrow, which is causing me anxiety. What if he gets him (yes its a him) dirty, or breaks him, or dents him!

I allowed my son to briefly use the wheelbarrow yesterday, under supervision, and with rules. It was a successful outing, and both enjoyed collecting the branches which had been building up in the orchard. I am hoping to allow the wheelbarrow to be used without supervision soon, but as any new mum will know this takes time! For now I can admire him, and think of a suitable name...

Not my chicken

I have enough to contend with my own chickens, and although I have adopted Lucky who we found in the reservoir, I was shocked to discover next doors chickens are moving in. As I was leaving Casa Chaos the other day, in a rush as usual I could hear chirping. The distinctive chirp of chicks, which brings that sinking feeling of oh no I really haven't got time for this.

So, off I wandered with hubby pulling the face of get in the car, move away from the chickens..no too late, I'm in the orchard staring at Two chicks. Now the problem is two chicks and 60+ chickens the question is who the hell is the mother.  well we can rule out the batteries, so I grabbed a chick and decided to use it as bait.

I wandered off with the chick waiting for a mum to wander over to claim her chick, and to my surprise a very vicious mother flew at me in a masterful "give my chick back or die" type maneuver. I dropped the chick as any sane person would do and then realised that the chicken wasn't even mine! By this time the children had joined me with lots of "oooooo chicks" followed with "that's not our chicken"

OK, so we had established that we had acquired a chicken and her babies, which amused me as to why she had broken into Casa Chaos, when my chickens spend all their time attempting to break out of the POW. Maybe the benefits, housing, and living conditions were better than next door, but I have no idea how she got her and the chicks in.

The next problem was that not being our chicken she hadn't been briefed on the rules, and was not aware that she had to go in the maternity wing. Every time someone went near her she would come at you claws showing in an incredibly protective manner, which is good. I was now so late as normal, I decided to walk away and leave her.

The mum and chicks are still running around the orchard, I'm not sure if she is only using us for food, and will return home when they are grown up, or whether she has moved in on a permanent basis. Maybe I should sent the guy next door a bill for food and lodgings for his chicken!

Far too gross

Every time I think my life cannot get any weirder something else happens that throws me into a turmoil of what the hell do I do! Yesterday was quite a normal day, chickens getting out, and goats getting out, very normal. As we were getting some of the feral chickens back in, there was one Honeybun that was moving really slowly, which is unusual for her. This chicken could give Usain Bolt a run for his money any day.

Therefore, we knew something was wrong, we just never expected what we found...as my daughter lifted her; she was literally being eaten alive by maggots. We were shocked, and stood there for a few moments thinking what the hell we could do. She didn't fuss  or flap and was in extreme discomfort, and at this point I knew we had to try and help her, I just didn't know how! 

There was an open wound, and she had obviously been attacked by something, which had caused the injury. Unfortunately, the flies had taken their opportunity to arrive, and laid eggs. This had caused a huge problem, which I had to deal with. As I ran around screaming for towels, buckets, gloves, I actually had no idea what to do.

I googled frantically, and the only thing I found was to flush the wound, pick the maggots out one by one and pray! This was going to be a long night, there was no quick method, and the smell was awful, but slowly and gently we removed the disgusting creatures, washed the wound, and begun the process over and over. 

We were there for hours, and all the time the chicken laid incredibly still, and seemed to accept that we were attempting to help. Finally I felt that no more could be done, and we washed the wound, applied Betadine, and popped her into a box. This morning she is still with us, and eating which is fantastic, we will have a look in a minute, after my coffee, to see if there are more maggots lurking, I feel this week is going to be long!

And still she sits

Lucy is still on her eggs, which seems to be forever, so off I Googled, and it seems that new mums can sit on their eggs for up to 50 days!! We are so protective of these eggs, and are ensuring that they are well protected, especially after Jessica's, little hissy fit the other night. The ducks have always shared a house, and the extension was to provide them with some more room, howver, Jessica is boisterous, and gets very rough.

We unfortunatly came down the other morning to find Jessicas smashing the eggs, and happily eating the contents, I was mortified, and quickly stopped her. The two that she had smashed were fertilised, and their were ducklings forming which was upsetting, but like everything we moved on, and thought of a plan B.

Plan B was to move Lucy and the eggs into the extension away from the mad duck, and to safety, however, this wasn't successful, and Lucy wanted her eggs where she had laid them and no where else. I was cared that she would abandon the eggs if we interfered too much, so I out them back..onto plan C, we had to separate Jessica.

The plan was to put Jessica in the extension every night block her in so that she could not get through to the other ducks, the first night this took ages, as ducks are creatures of habit and hate change, hmmm maybe I am a duck! However, it seems that Jessica has now excepted that this is her fate as she cannot play nicley with others hmm again sounds like me!

So Lucy sits, and we wait, and wait, and wait.....

Kindred spirits

There are very few people that understand me, that know when I am joking and when I am being serious, and want to get to know the crazy lady! However, recently I seem to be attracting the same sort of crazies into my world! I have always pondered whether there is other crazy people like me, and it appears there are, which is strange but comforting all rolled into one!

One guy who I have met through FB, yes I know we shouldn't talk to strangers, however, he is very funny! He has a phrase that he uses all of the time, which makes me chuckle, and I had to research what it meant. This guy will often refer to me as "Mad as a box of frogs" which I had never heard of before, took no offence by, and whenever I hear it it makes me smile...but what does it mean?

On further research it appears that this phrase means I am " A total f**king fruitloop" which should offend, but actually he is sooo right! I had never heard of the expression until he said it, and it is now one of my favourites....so thank you "GC" you bring a smile to a crazy ladies face! 

Cold chickens

It is really cold here, now I know it is not as cold as many places around the world, but for GC it is cold. and everything knows it here in Casa Chaos. The other morning when I did the school run it was 8c, which was so exciting for my son he kept going OMG take a picture. I have lived in GC for a while now and have never seen it so cold, but apparently that's what I get for living in the culo del mundo. I don't like the cold, and my mood rapidly deteriorates when I am cold, however, I have discovered that the chickens like it even less.

I now fully understand why people put those little woolly jumpers on their chickens  remember the ones I mocked in a previous blog! Well I now need some, how I will put them on the chickens who knows, but they are cold! You see them all huddles up in a corner with their heads tucked in under their feathers. Actually they look like a bunch of headless chickens which looks strange, but funny! During the day it warms up and they are all out and about, but for the first few hours of the day they are really cold.

I'm just pondering how long it would take me to A) knit 70+ little jumpers as I hate knitting and have never completed a whole project and B) how long it would take me to catch all the chickens to put their new jumpers on! and then there is the question of do the jumpers stay on all the time, or when they get warm during the day do I go down there to remove the jumpers!

In the end I have decided that all of this would be far too stressful, time consuming, and could finally push me over the edge into the pool of complete insanity! Therefore, extra straw was placed in nesting areas as this was far easier and did not require me to knit!

Stop bringing me animals

Why does everyone think that I am an animal whisperer? I do not have the answers, money or eternal knowledge to save everything on the planet! However, people keep suggesting me for animals, or bringing me animals to deal with. Yesterday was my daughter that appeared with yet another creature to add to the collection.

I can here my daughter approaching as only teenagers can manage with heavy footsteps, and loud music, however, yesterday there was another noise. In-between the terrible choice of music, I could hear chirping, very young chirping! As she approached the office I shouted " do not bring that in here" with her reply of "you don't know what it is" like that would make a difference!

Round the corner she emerged with a chick, a very small chick and proudly begun the story of how she heard the chick, found the chick, looked for others and there was only one, and now the chick was sat on my printer. In Casa Chaos this does not seem unusual, however, I'm sure it should be odd to have a chick sat on the printer.

So, at this point I enquire what she intends to do with the chick, and she proudly declares keep it, and look after it and be mummy to the chick! Now my son tried this before, and it is far harder than you imagine as chicks need their feathered mum's but who am I to tell her no. Too be honest as long as it wasn't something else I had to look after I didn't care!

Off went my daughter, the chick, some food and a cat carrier, as she passed her brother, he flippantly commented with "its going to die!" Always the realist is my son, he has seen the chicks  come and go, and he has begun to realise that some die and some live. We will see what happens with this one, you never know she might make an excellent chicken mum....she can't look after herself properly, but hey the chick may be lucky!

Crazy Cat Lady

I am ashamed to say that I am fast becoming that lady that everyone dreads seeing, the one with all the animals, and no clean clothes. I don't smell thank god, and I don't randomly throw cats at people like the lady off the Simpsons, however, I do seem to attract animals. The moment I lay on the sofa, they are all there.

It takes a matter of moment for them to realise that I have settled for two minutes, and with that they descend. Every cat has its favourite place, and typically by the time I have all four and Charlie, I can no longer move a part of my body. Thank god I only have the four cats, and I wonder if these woman that have huge numbers get pinned to their sofas for days on end by their cats.

I love all of my animals but do where to draw the line and say NO! I have to practise at least 20 times a day in the mirror...NO...NO..NO! (until the next time) Seriously though I can see how it is far too easy to become a crazy cat lady, as there are far too many that need helping. So for the moment I will continue to keep moving so that the little bodies cannot settle, and enjoy the status of being the crazy cat lady...or is that just the crazy lady!

Christmas Decorations

Christmas is fast approaching which means that my children relentlessly ask for the tree to be put up until I give in and spend hours faffing with the decorations. In all fairness this nagging has nothing to do with the Christmas feeling, it is because I put the presents under the tree as soon as it goes up. This will then cause the "you have more than me" argument, followed with the continuous shaking to see what the present is, until it can be shaken no more.

In all fairness I do like the tree when it goes up, however  within a very short space of time, typically a week I am bored of it and want it back down! I join the children in the countdown to Christmas, not for the presents, but for when I can remove the tree! Unfortunately  we have two Christmases here, which results in the tree needing to stay up even longer.

Someone asked me the other day if I was decorating the chicken coop and orchard, and I stopped for  a moment, not to consider this insane thought, but to think they were really stupid for asking. Why on earth would I want to give the chickens anything else to poop on and eat!

However, it seems that many people do in fact take the time to decorate their chicken coops, and provide their feathered friends with some Christmas cheer! I seriously do worry about people on this planet. Anyway, I suppose if they have the time, energy and money to put decorations up for their chickens then good for them. Who am I trying to kid, they are insane! and need to attend therapy!

Billy is home

Blogging that Billy is home is not something that I thought I would be writing, as although I am optimistic about animals returning, as the time went on longer my hopes were fading. I knew Billy couldn't fly far, therefore, he must have wandered off somewhere. We had searched up and down the barranco, in the road and around the finca. As he could not get into the orchards the area within the finca was limited, but we searched.

Everything I Googled indicated that he would come back within 24 hours, and after that time period it was unlikely. My biggest fear was that Billy had ended up on some Spanish guys dinner plate, however, after 7 days of being missing we have Billy back. The ironic thing is that he had never gone very far, and proved that his nosiness will be the death of him.

Billy loves two things in life, his pond and being nosey, if there is a bag open Billy is there having a look to see what is going on.  After we had fed everything yesterday, we were walking back up to the house watching Tazzy (the kitten) playing with feathers. Now feathers here are not unusual, but she seemed to have a large amount of them, which was odd.

Tazzy has no fear, and is often found wrestling animals that are far bigger than her, and proudly dropping them at my feet. She is also in places that she shouldn't be, and yesterday was no different, as she was in the pipes for the water tanks. We have a large storage tank to collect water, and from this there are several concrete pipes, they are quite large, and often Tazzy plays in them.

As we watched her, she kept running into the pipe, and returning backwards with a mouthful of white feathers. After a while she obviously had hold of her prize as she struggled, and pulled and growled and pulled. To our complete amazement out popped Tazzy dragging Billy by his tail feathers, looking very sorry for himself, extremely dirty, and missing many feathers.

Billy had obviously got nosey, waddled into the pipe and got stuck, if Tazzy hadn't found him we would never have known he was there. I'm not sure if Tazzy saved Billy, or whether she was claiming her prize of dinner, but either way she is a clever kitty. Billy looked ill, very pale, and wobbly on his feet, however, off he waddled and went straight in his pond! Hopefully he has learnt by his mistake, and will not stick his head where it is not supposed to be in the future.

Egg hoarding

I would love to say that I hoard eggs to spite all of the people that keep asking me for eggs, however, this is not the case. The chickens are there to provide me with eggs, and an income, but at the moment they are doing very little of either. People message me all the time asking for eggs, and I would love to take your money and provide you with eggs, however, if there are no eggs this simply isn't going to happen.

Eggs have become like gold dust and what little amounts they are laying I use within minutes, I even found myself loitering around the egg aisle in the supermarket the other day, trying to bring myself to buy...supermarket eggs! It felt shameful, like I was committing a crime. I stood and starred at the small, shrink wrapped packages, and simply could not bring myself to pick up a box.

I do ponder about the people on this island sometimes, as when I tell them I have no eggs they think I am mad, lying or being spiteful. The consider the fact that I have chickens to be the ticket to eggs, which in theory should be true, but alas, no eggs! I wish I was a better chicken farmer, and could have all the answers, maybe it is because it is cold, maybe it is because they hate me who knows, but either way they are not producing enough eggs!

Lets hope the dry spell does not last and that they begin to lay soon, so I can walk down the street without the fraggles muttering " there she is the secret egg hoarder" I promise you guys when I have eggs, you will have eggs, it is as simple as that, and until then you will have to go and be shameful and buy supermarket eggs!

No Power....

Living in an old house our power goes off quite often, which is usually the result of overloading the plugs, having far too many electrical pieces of equipment, and not realising that you cannot put the microwave, kettle, oven and hob on all at the same time. However, last night when we were plummeted into darkness, it was through no fault of my own.

The whole area went out, which is spooky, and as you will remember I so not like the dark. Thankfully I know where the torch and candles are. Something to light the candles took slightly longer, more stress, some shouting, but eventually candles were lit. Now comes the debate, what to do when its dark! well I cleaned the kitchen and folded the washing by torch light. However, I was aware that if I kept the torch on it may go flat.

OK, what to do, cannot read, cannot watch TV, cannot message anyone as the signal on my phone went as well, oh the joys of living in the culo del mundo. I was relatively calm until I realised I had no phone signal, then the imagination begun to work harder. What if the house burns down, we get broken into or one of us has an accident, I have no way of getting help. In my defence I think if I stood on the terrace and screamed someone would hear me as it was so quiet.

So, back to the debate of what to do....well sleep looks like my only option, what a shame I will have to get some extra sleep. Off I go to the sofa and I lay there, and lay there, and for the first time in history I cannot sleep. This is not good, time is passing, still no electricity, still no lights, panic setting in, what if I cannot sleep as I am concerned that every little noise will kill us.

Eventually the power came back on, after what seemed like an eternity, when in reality it was only 27 minutes and 52 seconds, not that I was counting. Back to normality, where the dark can stay outside, and the house can be lit up, keeping us safe!

Death, illness and bad luck

Winter is setting in here in Casa Chaos, and I have a cold, which is not good at all as I have very little energy at the best of times, and a cold is making everything a chore. I hate being ill, especially when I am so busy on a day to day basis, and at the moment I am really busy. Along with me being ill, everything seems to be going wrong, which makes it all such hard work.

We have lost 4 chickens this week, ranging from new ones coming out of the maternity wing, to fully grown batteries. Anything dying is hard, but when they go in quick succession it makes it more difficult, and typically I don't have the answers, or even the energy to Google the answers. It is cold here at the moment, and before you all jump on the its not that cold bandwagon, it is cold for GC.

Billy has still not returned which is also getting me down, as I hate not knowing where an animal is, and if they will return. I hope that he will waddle up the drive, but too be honest I cannot see this happening any time soon. Lets hope we get through the winter with no more causalities, and that I can shift this cold quickly!